Transcript Collections - Susquehanna University

Natural History Collections
Types of Natural History Collections
• Natural History Museums
– Plants
– Animals
• Skeletons
• Preserved
– Fossils
– Anthropology Collections
– Geological collections
• Botanical Gardens
• Zoological Parks
Plant Garden at the Museum of Natural
History, Paris
Earliest Natural History Museums
• Cabinets of curiosities
• Public Museums
– 16th Century; Conrad
Gessner in Zurich
– 1635; Muséum national
d'histoire naturelle in
Paris
– 1677; Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford
– 1881; Natural History
Museum in London
Functions of Natural History
Collections
• Education
• Catalog biodiversity
– Library of information
– Repository for type
specimens
– Source of physical and
molecular samples for
comparison
• Conservation
Main Hall of the Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago
Types of Specimens
• Museums
– Specimens are dry or
preserved
– Fossils
• Botanical gardens
– Living plants in a park or in
greenhouses
– Herbaria
• Zoological Parks (Zoos)
– Living terrestrial animals
• Aquaria
– Living aquatic animals
Natural History Museum, London
• Founded 1881
• Main collections:
– Botany
– Entomology
– Minerology
– Paleontology
– Zoology
National Museum of Natural History,
Washington, D.C.
• Established 1910
• One of the Smithsonian
Museums
• Main collections:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Plants
Animals
Fossils
Minerals
Rocks
Meteorites
Cultural artifacts
Botanical Gardents
• From herbal gardens and
exotic plants, 18th century
• History to biblical times
• Test and grow plants for
medicine, dyes, food,
timber, and other economic
and strategic purposes
• Bartram Gardens –first
botanical garden in N.A.
– Satisfy European demand
for exotic plants
New York Botanical Garden, NYC
• Established 1891
• 50 gardens, one a
parcel of old-growth
forest
• Pfizer Plant Research
Laboratory
– Genomic DNA storage
– TreeBOL, a project to
‘barcode’ plants
• Mertz Library
Rose garden of the New York Botanical
Garden
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Opened 1759
• Largest collection of
living plants >30,000
different species
• Jodrell Laboratory
– Botanical illustration
– Seed collection
– Research in secondary
compounds
Palm House, Kew Gardens
Herbarium Specimens
• Herbarium sheets
• Dry mosses & lichens
• Large specimens
stored in boxes
• All kept in cabinets
according to a
system
Herbarium at the Museum of Natural History, Paris
Herbaria
• Muséum national d'histoire
naturelle (Paris) nearly 10
million specimens
• Ботанический институт им.
В.Л.Комарова (St. Petersburg)
more than 7 million
specimens
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (7
million specimens)
• New York Botanical Garden, (7
million specimens)
Herbarium curator at the New
York Botanical Garden William
and Lynda Steere Herbarium
Zoos and Aquaria
• Evolved from private
royal menageries
• Living collections
with different
habitat and dietary
requirements
• Breeding programs
in place for
conservation and to
maintain a breeding
population